Here are some pics of some houses I’ve reciently completed in a city neighborhood. This is downtown Raleigh NC. The locals call the area “Oakhood”, since it’s right between Oakwood and the hood. Oakwood is a historic yuppie neighborhood. The hood is, well… the hood – but seemingly not as bad as you might think. Anyway, Oakhood is not your average beige vinyl suburb… Square footages are between 1500 – 1700. I’m doing one now that is 2100.
BTW – just got a new camera – hope the pics aren’t too big for screen viewing.
Replies
WOW- ya got some bright colors there.
(got my sunglasses on now)
nice looking homes there. Not just some cookie cutter boxes. If you don't mind my asking, what does something like that go for.
Been awhile since I've been down that way. I've got friends that live in Hillsborough.
Very nice houses. I actually like the use of colors. Are these presold homes or specs on a lot? Who determines the plans and colors. etc.?
Wouldn't mind seeing some interior pics if possible!
I get paid to do carpentry. That makes me a professional.
If I work on my own house does that make me a DIY?
Here are a few interior pics of the house that closed yesterday. This house was ~180k and was a presale. The HO had me delete out the fireplace, which I think is a major design element and focal point of the family room and the way we did the marble surrounds and mantle looked pretty good on the other houses. I think they were worried because they have small kids.
Edited 9/16/2005 7:53 am ET by Matt
Those are some nice, clean interiors. I like the wide casings and the use of different colors in different rooms. It kills me when I see $500,000 houses here in NJ with 2 1/4" colonial casing and everything painted Builder's White.
Bob
You beat me to it! McMansions in Northern NJ don't come close the details on these houses....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
Very nice inside and out. I think you've met your goal of building beautiful homes that normal people want to live in.
Thanks for sharing the pics!
Matt-
I'm very impressed with those interiors. As someone who does a lot of trim, I really like the detail you put into the inside of that house.
As others have already said, 2-1/2" colonial casing doen't really cut it.
I hope the new owners appreciate it, too.
Thanks. The one I'm doing now down there is gonna have a lot more.
Hi Matt, and thanks for the pictures.
I heard from a friend that land is hard to find around raleigh, and how much does it cost for land like that.
Thanks,
John
Builder & the other above posters:
Land is hard to find around Raleigh, however these lots are part of a City of Raleigh Community redevelopment project, so the lots are sold to us at a significant discount (maybe 1/2 or 1/3rd actual value) but then the city gets to boss us around as to what we build. They want homes that are "historically appropriate", and they have to OK house plans, exterior details and exterior paint colors. They had some house plans, but I think my boss-man trashed them thinking that the interiors were not conducive to modern lifestyles (and buyers's tastes). He builds up to $2mil spec homes (elsewhere) so I have no doubt that he knows exactly what he is doing... There are 4 builders involved in this particular project and there are about 30 lots. I have a good repour (sp?) with the city people and his archies and I think we generally all have the same vision, so it all works out good. 70% of the homes must be affordable by county residents with mean income and there are some finance programs available for these homes.
Re the exterior colors, they were mostly picked by the homeowners. They were mostly spec houses but all sold by the time drywall was in. One was a presale. I actually picked the colors on one house - the one that is probably the most controversial... It came out a little brighter than I thought it would ;-) We had a designer but she was big on lt grey and beige :-(, so her exterior selections were not used (I don't think she shared "the vision"). The historic Oakwood neighborhood is right next door and there are a number of brightly colored houses over there too, so it all fits.
Re the Oakwood neighborhood, there are some fantastic examples of late 19th century architecture over there. Victorian, craftsman, shingle to name a few. These houses range from very modest 'shotguns' to homes built for the wealthy. About 2 blocks up the street are 3 fantastic Second Empire Victorian houses, obviously all built by the same builder, one of which is pictured in a book I have A Field Guide to American Houses. The Governer's mansion is 6 blocks up the street.
The houses I built there were priced between 150 to 185k. The 2100 sq foot house that is underway is not going to be so "affordable" as it has (will have) high ceilings (10' 1st, 9' 2nd) , granite, and quite a bit of trim, along with a bunch of other upgrades. If any of you caught my thread about antique style push button switches, it was for this house.
Re interior pics - my camera has been broken for several months, so I don't have any. Maybe can take a few today of the one that is closing, but the interiors are fairly modest on the houses I posted pics of. A little crown here and there, and just a few other upgrades. You really can't get too fancy in that price range. Maybe I'll get some on this larger house as it progresses.
Attached is a pic of that house. It will have an eyebrow type dormer - sort of - and a big arch over the entry way so it will look better soon as the siding is on which is what we are currently working on.
Attached are also a few nieghborhood pics to give you all more of an overall view.
Edited 9/15/2005 6:33 am ET by Matt
Nice colors - reminds me of the painted ladies of San Fran. What kind of siding is that?
Here are some more "city houses" that I finished up last month... These are considered affordable housing. There was a cap on the sales price as set by the city and further we were required to sell to first time homebuyers. Little different than your average subdivision houses and McMansions.
These are the Energy Star homes I spoke about in another thread recently. They range in size from 1336 to 1525 sq ft so they are modest homes.
Edited 1/3/2009 8:46 pm ET by Matt
Those are very nice, but....
Modest today sure means something different than middle class in the 70's....
those would be twice what the same program was offering back then.
A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
I know what you mean. This is designed to be a mixed income neighborhood, and these are the upper end of those houses. Right across the street from the grayish purple house there are some duplexes that were originally quad-plexes. These are city owned rentals. Each duplex unit is ~900 sq feet, meaning that when they were quad-plexes they were ~450 sq ft units!!!! Here, anyway, it is not possible to find a new single family home that is less than ~1200 sq ft and even those are extremely rare. Times change...
Still, part of the idea of this project was to build homes that fit in with the existing historic homes that are in that neighborhood, most of which are vintage maybe 1890-1915. Back then, even modest homes had a little "flair". I spent some time studying the exteriors of these homes so I have pictures. One such house pic is attached. I say modest - well I guess it was modest - as it is one of the smaller 2 stories around. Also, my feeling was that if we built tiny homes, rather than ending up like the pink house I pictured, they would end up like the drug and murder infested slums that were demolished to make way for the new homes. Actually, even if you look at the slum homes (no pics) they had some flair. My thought is that maybe 100 years ago labor was less expensive (relatively speaking) so people often put nice details even on the smallest of houses.
BTW - on this project we partnered with Habitat for Humanity and they are building 1200 sq ft ranches right there too. St Augestine's College is building there too and their houses are in the 1200-1400 sq ft range. Of course none of those houses are as nice as mine ;-) although even all those are better than you might expect.
Also, let me make something clear - these houses I built are not "subsidized housing". The city did sell us the lots at a discount so that they could then control what we built and who we sold to. They also threw some requirements in there that probably increased the cost of each house by $10k or more.
The local residents call this neighborhood "Oak Hood" since it is right between Oakwood (a yuppie historic area) and the hood. :-)
I re-did the pic of the pink historic house. I didn't realize how big it was when I first posted it....
I love the look of these houses. Part of what I like is the fact they sit out of the ground and have nicely detailed steps up to the front porch.
I know you stated these houses weren't directly subsidized....but were any issues of accessibility brought up by the city. I imagine if they had been directly subsidized then accessibility would have been an issue.
Dan
Thanks for your comments.
>> Part of what I like is the fact they sit out of the ground and have nicely detailed steps up to the front porch. <<
I brought dirt in on 3 of the houses. Two were a little low and on the third the dirt was right there on the next lot over and free. The brick steps were part of what the city wanted, although it is not really an appropriate historic look in that area. I had the bricklayers do the revels on the steps and some other little details. Also, my concrete guy will add in some extra finishing for little or no extra cost if I just tell him what I want.
>> I know you stated these houses weren't directly subsidized....but were any issues of accessibility brought up by the city. I imagine if they had been directly subsidized then accessibility would have been an issue. <<
Accessibility was not discussed. Thank gosh - many people like to say these kind of things like that but the fact that it costs real money alludes them. They think that something like this is a $5 expense that the builder should just include for the same price. Also, 2 story and acceptability don't go together very well. The city also wanted crawl space homes - if they were to be accessible, slab homes would be more appropiate.
No knock on you... they are lovely even though I'm not abig fan of the colors.
We have the same thing happening in our older districts. I just hope the your habitants find them worthy of maintenance moreso than ours.A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
Re the colors, they were picked by the homebuyers. Really, I encouraged them to pick some strong colors and wouldn't have minded if they picked some more bright colors. Normally I would have charged extra for some of those dark colors but in this case, I did not. My painter cut me some slack so I cut the homebuyers some slack too. Not sure if you looked at the older pics from a few years ago, but the only one I really didn't like was the "catsup and mustard" house.
On the 2 Victorian looking houses I tried them to let us do some more accent painting, but they just didn't seem to get the idea.... See attached pic of old house.
Even the dk grey one is kinda cool - it looks dark purple on some days. Not that I would have used these colors on my personal house... 1 or 2 maybe.
I like the colors. They seem perfectly appropriate for the style.
What a nice addition to the neighborhood. Great job.
Nice job. What's that, Hardi and Azek exteriors?
Runnerguy
The exteriors are Hardie and mostly Miratec. The door trim and the rake mold are Azek, and all exterior moldings are PVC. The front porch railings, columns and some brackets are that new CA-B treated wood and it is KDAT. The exterior window sills are CA-B KDAT also. The brackets etc on the bluish purple house are Fypon and Azek.
Very nice looking homes. I live in a neighborhood that dates from the same era, and those houses would fit right in around here.
Thanks much...
Matt, I salute you.
Your homes are not only energy efficient..they look great also.
The porches are nice and the best thing is there is NO attached garage.
The inhabitants will love their homes and they will maintain their homes.
Aesthetics is a big deal...NICE WORK
John B
Thanks a lot. That means a lot comming from you, after looking at the pics of your own house and knowing that were are somewhat of the same mind when it comes to these "new - old" houses.
These houses are really, really cool in a number of ways.You've done a terrific job and are to be commended.And the pride you've taken in this project beams through in every one of your posts.Congrats.... and if there's more pics, post em!I know I'll take a look at em.
Thanks for the kind words. I really don't have any more pictures. When I first got a digital camera I used to take a lot of pics of houses as I was building them but I've kinda slacked off on that... Also, to me, it's kinda hard to take good looking pics inside a fairly small house. Maybe if my camera had a wide angle lens...
Whoever did the trim job in the catsup-mustard house... very nicely done. I love the details.And the tile job was sharp too... as was the kitchen design.Makes me want to tear mine down and start over...
Yes - that one wasn't an "affordable" house. It was really nice to work with someone who had some money, was willing to spend it with no wining, and was receptive to some of my ideas. The trim layout was my doing, although I had some carps do the install.
A year ago those would have gone for $400-500K in Atlanta. Probable $350-400K today. Way too expensive for this individual living in the 'po south'.
Very nice. jt8
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. -- Voltaire
Thanks John. Beats the heck out of building light tan vinyl houses in suburbia.
Matt, Are those houses N of Oakwood and E of the Krispy Kreme? Or more E of downtown. Or did they replace the area of the housing complex where Peace college is?I used to work for Habitat in the 90's and loved the area. And I love housing issues. I am now about to start a nonprofit in this rural county in MI and create some jobs to go with it.So many issues so little time...Congratulations on some truly spectacular building!dan
Other side of the Oakwood neighborhood. I'd say Krispy Cream is on the NW corner of the Oakwood neighborhood. This is kinda on the SW edge of the Oakwood neighborhood and just south of Oakwood Cemetery. Down around the lower part of East Jones, Cooke St, Swain St, Seawell Ave and Lane St.
BTW - " I used to work for Habitat in the 90's and loved the area." If it was the mid to late 90s I'd have to say: Do I know you?
Regarding the projects area around Peace College - you would be shocked to see the area. All new, mostly single family housing. A division of my company built a bunch of "townhouse with a gap" type properties over there that sold for around 3 or 4 hundred K$. A quick web search brought up this.
Early 90's before they moved to present warehouse location.When Scott Anderson was their director. Before they had the pro come in and really do a great job of setting up the Company and get the $ in order to sustain its future.He came over from the Food Bank. A super smart guy in arranging nonprofits. I worked with the guys from the IBM Credit Union and a couple of guys from NC State. Ran the bldg department when it went big and kind of lost its direction. Now do I know you? My email is [email protected] let me know.Those are some terrific properties! I was around Raleigh when Tom Fetzer was mayor and all this was starting. I am not at all conservative but this was a great time for both sides of the political fence to work together and change a city!There is a lot to like about that area....Glad you are doing so well.
Edited 1/7/2009 8:01 pm ET by drapson
I wish our local builders would do more like what you've done.
Really nice.
I have only two thoughts/complaints which involve design.
Why don't the first floor window heads align with the exterior door heads ?
Why doesn't the window layout of any tract-type built home have any semblence of symmetry ? These houses are lovely but could be much more so if some consideration was taken to laying out the windows on the side and even the front elevations. If you look at the older homes in the background of the photos you can see the difference.
Thanks for the photos.
Great stuff.
carpenter in transition
"Why don't the first floor window heads align with the exterior door heads ?"
Because in most housing with the exception of true "customs", no one pays attention that- they set the rough headers for doors and windows all the same (usually a 2x10 below the double top plate to give an R.O. that will accept a standard 6/8 door and frame). This doesn't account for the fact that the relationship between the RO and the exterior casing/brickmold isn't the same on a prehung exterior door as it is on a window unit. Therefore, you get variations in the heights of the exterior finish trim, and even worse, between the door casing and window casings inside. That looks even crappier most of the time, since the interior usually has the same narrow casing on both doors and windows, and it's readily apparent that they don't line up. At least at the exterior, you can treat the trim on the windows differently than the doors, and try to conceal the fact.
Bob
I get your drift, Bob, but look at the photos again. There is no way that you can tell me that they used the same header height for the doors and windows. It's not just the trim, those are off by a lot.
carpenter in transition
sleeps till noon but before it's dark...
Siding looks freaky in those resized pics.
jt8
"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing." --Harriet Braiker
dialups can't be picky.
be a question of worth the wait
sleeps till noon but before it's dark...
Yup- yer right- who knows why that's happening then. It's especially odd since the windows appear higher, even though their RO's are wider- shouldn't that require a deeper header, which would move the windows down relative to the doors??
Puzzling.....
Bob
Didn't there used to be a To:All option....anyway
First, I like the houses quite a bit. The window/door alignment I can get past pretty fast, especially for affordable housing.
However, what a racket this city redevelopment is! They sell lots for "1/2 or 1/3rd actual value"--pretty big incentive for developers. What does the city get back for that? Apparently oversight into the appearance and plans but at least here the "boss-man trashed them". Not sure the full scope of the trashing but the oversight doesn't seem too strong. And then the requirement that "70% of the homes must be affordable by county residents with mean income". Jeez, first I'm guessing county is a much larger area than the neighboorhood, and the hood aspect would mean the county mean is a lot higher than the hood mean. Also mean is pulled up by the few but incredibly large incomes in the county. Median or mode are much more representative of estimating a typical income in a population. And only 70% of the lots sold for 1/2 or 1/3 of value are even required to reach this affordability level. Perhaps I'm reaching too far with my generalization but I would guess that most of the people in the neighboorhood wouldn't be able to afford these houses. All of this while Matt reports "Land is hard to find around Raleigh". The city is handing developers profits all for the benefit of not having tract housing in the city and the huge cost of pricing the current residents out of their own neighboorhood..
$ will flow in. Rents will go up. house prices will go up. rents will go up more. Landlords won't get enough rent for a place so they'll renovate apt.'s into condo's and sell them for absolutely stunning prices. And where did the people who used to live there end up? City doesn't appear to care, except maybe for considering a new jail.
Sorry I live in Providence where this has all been the norm and the previous mayor is still serving federal prison time for running a racketeering ring(RICO). Not much different from most mayors etc., just stepped over the line and stole from some rich people and not just the poor. If its like Prov. Raleigh is likely starved for greenspace, parks, and play areas. Definitely better to give $ to developers than recreation. Now why again are kids so overweight? sorry i've spiraled far off topic. I hope this was coherent at least.
eric
Everybody gets their own opinion. Re: >> cost of pricing the current residents out of their own neighborhood.. << You are right, but the fact is that most people in the hood - as far as I can see, don't have jobs. So the only housing they can afford are slums. They do have lots of time for beer drinking on the front porch in the middle of the day. Must be nice. Many years ago I dated a girl from a poor family. What I learned when visiting them in a small city in Ohio was that - gee - I sure wish I could sleep until 10:30 every day. I think the answer is to educate the children - not pay welfare to the mothers with 5 kids each from a different father...
The good news that after having worked there 8 months or so, not a bit of building material has been stolen. Why do you think that is? On the other hand, as least weekly, someone stops by to try to sell me used tools out of their trunk. Usually with a story about how they are getting out of the business...
BTW - there are city owned apartments that rent for $400 and up within a block. These are small apartment buildings that were recently refurbished and actually look quite nice.
>> Not sure the full scope of the trashing but the oversight doesn't seem too strong. <<
The conceptual plans the city had looked very nice (from a historic standpoint) from the exterior, but the interiors were small cut-up rooms with lots of windows. The plans we submitted were all revised, some with complete redraws. A few plans were rejected entirely. Ours have open floor plans with a maximum of 3 windows per bedroom. I'm thinking that the maybe the main difference is that "back in the day" they designed houses, exterior first. I think typically, today, we only have a very general design concept for the exterior, design interiors, and then do the exteriors.
I go to a weekly on site meeting with the city people and their archi consultants. Exterior details have to all be approved by these people, and if they are not, I'd be running the risk of having to tear off stuff that is already installed on the house. Another builder who has some lack of supervision issues has had several tear-offs! One time they even had to jack out around 3 yards of concrete! I kind of like the deal because I get the qualified opinions of these archies for free and I really value their opinions from a stylistic standpoint.
I have had to reset their expectations some though ;-). Like at the beginning they wanted us to use Benjamin Moore historic paint - on 150k houses? Yea right. So, they said OK - just do paint matching - any paint store can do it. Anyone who has been around a bit knows that when you do paint matching you open yourself up for screw-ups. So, we compromised on the Duron historic paint chart. Another example was in the beginning one of the archies said - use Azek trim for the entire exterior. I told him it was too expensive. His response: "Yea, now that you mention it, we are doing another project using PVC trim and we are $35k over budget on the exterior...
They do have us sod the front yards, plant a 2.5" tree of their choosing at their specified location, and some other landscaping stuff too.
Re: >> What does the city get back for that? << The project is coordinated by the city Community Development department. So, the idea is to convert the city from a huge slum to a revitalized area that normal people would want to live in and/or visit. Once the people come, then the businesses will come. Isn't that one of the things a city government should do - make it a good place to live?
>> Why don't the first floor window heads align with the exterior door heads ? <<
Around here, that's more for inexpensive homes - say around $100 - 120k. When I build homes with 8' ceilings the windows and door tops do align. In historic homes the ceilings are usually higher, and the windows are typically higher than the doors. These houses have 9' first floor and 8' second floor. Actually, most low-mid $ and up houses have 9' ceilings on the first floor - even in surburbia.
Re window layout, I think that was one of my boss man's main gripes about the plans from the city. Less thought given to the use of interior space, and more thought put toward the exterior looks. Unfortunately, now a days, people live inside their homes... When homebuyers go to look at a house, they focus on the interior - not the exterior... the exterior is just a passing glimpse as they walk up to the front door. I want it both ways :-)
So, these houses are a mix of the old and the new.
Edited 9/15/2005 9:36 pm ET by Matt
Matt,
It's great to see affordable housing that has personality.
The great looking exteriors hint at quality throughout, very nice.
As the kids like to say . . . way cool.
Good to see work in the city for a change. We have some similar programs like that here in Columbus, but they usually include garages. Does that add too much to the cost in Raleigh?
Garages...
Historic homes did not have garages, or if they did, they were more like single car (at best) detached "carriage houses" that were pushed back on the lot. Also, the width of the lots don't support attached garages - generally, they are 50' wide. They wouldn't even let us put in double wide driveways.
Edited 9/16/2005 6:23 am ET by Matt
Thanks all for the kind words. The thing is that I get to enjoy building some houses that are a bit unique. More fun than vinyl boxes or another McMansion that is just a shrine to conspicuous consumption.
Ok - Here are some more pics. These are of the more expensive house I'm building down there in the city. First is the dormer that I built inside the house. Then the framers came back and put it on the roof. The next is of the front elevation - the pic's low resolution makes the siding look funny. Siding is done except for a few pieces that had to be left off to support sucessive steps - like porch ceiling is not done as the electrical needs to be done and the building inspector is gonna want to look up there after all rough-ins are finished and signed off. Rough-ins are going on right now. Once the plumber and HVAC get done, then I'll have it painted.
To give a little more background on the project here is few pics of houses in the hood a few blocks away that will likely be replaced or refurbished. And one pic of a neat looking house over there - there are a few.
And to give a little more background, here are some houses from 2 other city redevelopment projects nearby - these houses are vinyl and more in the 100 - 140k price range. These were done by another builder. The last house is a Habitat for Humanity house that is in one of the neighborhoods - I helped frame it.
And here are some high density rental units that were refurbished. They are right between "my" neighborhood (OakHood) and the Hood. So, it's not like all the old residents are being displaced...
Matt
I envy you.
I've always like to see old neighborhoods being revitalized. Most of these houses are well built and its a shame to let them deteriorate to the point of disrepair.
Keep the pictures coming.
Doug
Great work! I especially like the interiors. More pictures of interiors please. And how do you carry the simple but elegant design to the bathrooms?
You get out of life what you put into it......minus taxes.
Marv
Edited 9/27/2005 8:39 am ET by Marv
(what's with that gigantic funky chimney on the right side of the vinyl replacement house 008?) :)Ditto the accolades. Houses look great, and for an area that really deserves it. Keep up the progress.
Bravo for going against all the Raleigh trends.I kills me to see a street of nice bungalows with a monstrous wart of a McMansion stuck in as infill with a plan selected in the supermarket checkout.My wife and I want to build, combining Not so Big House concepts with what I have learned from Fine Homebuilding, but all we can find is Not so Fine Homebuilding (should you really use duct tape as window flashing? On a $500k house?)You even managed to make it look like Raleigh has a downtown!
Raleigh is a more compact, walkable small city than Columbus - it's a little college town, really.
Few of the historic homes downtown would have real garages, and with the narrow lots, the houses would be all garage. Not a nice look.
Hey Matt, That looks great. I try to avoid Raleigh like the plague, but dang, the next time I have to get one of the kids a governor's pardon, I'll have to stop by<G>.I'm curious how you're keeping the costs down...they don't look cheap. Good job. "what's in a name?" d'oh!
OK - let me see if I can answer most of the above questions...
DougU: there are some right near there that are undergoing major remodels - you know tear it down to the bare studs. Unfortunately, a lot of times it comes down to money - would it be cheaper to fix or replace? I'll try and get some renovation pics. Right up the street there is a big brick historic house. The owner, who is a builder did a complete restore and is now building a new one right next door to live in. He said he is tired of the drafts and the outrageous heating/cooling bills. Those duplex apartments are renovations.
Marv: I don't have any more interior pics - for now. My camera was broken for several months and now the first 4 homes are sold and lived in. As far as the bathrooms, there is not that much to them but all the 1st floor powder rooms have pedestal sinks. 2 of the houses have corner pedestals whish is fairly unusual. In the house I'm building now, I'm gonna try to sell the guy on bead board wainscoting in the powder room. I have some left over from another job, and I'll mostly just charge him the labor - we will see...
Draftguy - I really don't know much about the vinyl houses. Oh now I see - that was a joke...
Biteme - The main way of keeping the costs down is by building smaller houses and keeping a close eye on things. The houses are 1500 - 1700 sq ft although the on I'm working on now is 2100 sq ft. That, and try to stick with standard materials and methods... for example, yea, spayed in foam insulation is great, but I have yet to meet a home buyer who wants to pay an extra 5k for it....
Matt, on Lot 20, do you by chance remember what the color/paint was on the orange-ish sections? I would never have thought to use orange, but I do like that particular shade. Also, what is the siding material?
Are the few windows on the sides due to the houses being so close together, because of budgetary concerns, or is that the north side of the house?
jt8
"Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence."
-- Hal Borland
Edited 9/15/2005 11:47 am ET by JohnT8
The exterior paint colors are from the Duron Historic paint chart.
Re the windows, when you put too many windows on a small house, you end up with no wall space to place furnature - see my comments above about the way people live in their homes these days. Also, each house has around 20 windows - to add more would increase the price of the house - and these houses are on the upper end of what the city considers affordable already.
What kind of siding products did you use?
Hardi plank with Miratec trim and some pvc/Azek for moldings, etc, There is no real wood on the exterior of the houses - my goal is to build for the long run. I'm sure that'll get me flamed.. :-)
As much as some folks might nitpick, I think these are outstanding houses. They blend into their neighborhood, have some character, are affordable, and comfortable to boot.
jt8
"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing." --Harriet Braiker
OK - it's time to have a little fun ;-) See attached pic. Did I say the guy was a little eccentric?
Windows used to have a desktop theme that was colored about like that. Ketchup and mustard.
Wonder what color the roof is going to be?
jt8
"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. " --Theodore N. Vail
The roof is dark brown architectural 30 yr asphalt shingles - as far as I'm concerned, it's the only thing that goes with the other stuff - guess who picked the color ;-)
The dormer and arch over the front door are copper - they look pretty good. Need to get a newer pic.
Edited 10/25/2005 5:45 pm ET by Matt
"Wonder what color the roof is going to be?"green (lettuce)
Matt
I for one like that! And if that's in the neighborhood as all those others with the nice paint jobs then it should fit in fine.
Doug
Edited 10/25/2005 10:05 am ET by DougU
Matt,
congrats.
I would rather live in any one of the houses you have shown then almost any of the houses typically shown in FHB.
You should be proud of your participation in that " re-developement"
BTW----the whole concept seems to be pretty much of a win/win.
city gets non-revenue producing property off the books------and gets tax paying homeowners moving in-----property values go up----everybody wins.
There is no " right" to live in a slum.
stephen
Thanks for the kudos. I know what you mean about so many of the houses today - either a hundred of them all in a row of similar neutral colors and gray roofs or just cheer shrines to wealth, affluence, and conspicuous consumption. Even the catsup/mustard house in the pic is conservative in that it is only 2100 sq ft. The inside is be gonna be trimmed out nice though...
The previous roof description may interest you a bit.
Edited 10/25/2005 6:07 pm ET by Matt
Agreed. We have a house like that in our neighborhood, blends in well but still very characteristic. You'd think more people would get over their fear of color.Good job (as always), Matt.
Matt---I am infinitely more interested in old houses than new houses( I avoid new houses like the plague)
but I really respect the houses you showed---AND what your city seems to be trying to do with them.
Frankly----with how the energy situation is developing in this country-----I really think you are on the cutting edge of how cities and neighborhoods are going to be re-developed in the next generation.
Imagine walkability!
thanks again, Stephen
Actyally a few of the new residents do walk to work. Now if they would build a grocery store and a bar close by, I might even move in...
Here are the final pics of the last house just before the HO moved in.
For those of you who may have not seen this thread before, or may not remember, the project was a city revitalization project where the idea was to build historically appropriate (exterior) styled homes. The location is the inner city of Raleigh NC.
Matt-
Absolutely beautiful- just like the last ones. Any idea what the sale price on that one was?
I was suprised to see the "view" of the apartment house from the side porch- not the most attractive thing to look at. Other than that, great project.
Bob
Edited 1/29/2006 2:08 pm ET by BobKovacs
It sold for approx $335k. It has some upgrades like the granite, the trim, solid doors, etc. My Co made out rather well too. Yea, the apartment next door is about the worse thing around. I guess that's how it is in urban revitalization - there is always gonna be those few slum properties hanging on... It's pretty much screened during the summer. The buyer doesn't seem to care - he has lived in the direct neighborhood for 5 years and has quite a few stories about what it used to be like down there...
Matt
Great pictures.
I really like that color combination on that house!
Doug
beautiful! So much nicer than most infill houses around here and WAY superior to the suburban monstrosities. These homes are going to hold resale value for a long time, IMHO.
I really like that color combination on that house!
I hope this is not taken wrong. I was thinking when I saw the first pic that the house wouldnt sell where I live because of the the colors. Nice house . Great pics.
Tim
Tim et al:
The HO picked the colors. He is a bit eccentric. ;-) The colors are a love-hate thing. When the exterior colors first went up the house quickly became known in the neighborhood as the catsup-mustard house. I got a lot of negative comments from people walking by, and a few positives - there is a lot of foot traffic in the city... Then once the house was almost done and the painters finished it all out, the approval rating went from about 35% to about 75% - as did my opinion (almost) :-).
The shutters are not yet installed on the house - they are to be kind of a cranberry red - but once they are, the HO told me that he plans to use that as an accent color on a bit of trim around the porch posts and add some white accents too to carry through the white around the windows. Hard for me to imagine that red color will look good with the others... but from a conceptual point of view I think it will look cool, based on the way other homes are painted within a block or so of this one - those are real historic homes.
During the later part of construction, one unexpected compliment I got from several people was that they said how nicely the house was "restored" and 1 or 2 asked how old the house was. It's new construction. One of these people was the cabinet installer - so these people were not entirely "in the dark" types...
After working with this customer I truly realized that some people just "see" things entirely differently. The good news was that he was not a super detail oriented type of person and therefore his only punch list item was a small dent in the front of the dishwasher. He had a home inspector who had a few very minor issues too. That part of the deal was sweeeeet for me... It was great to do a nice job and not have a customer who points out a gnat's #### sized spot in the paint behind where the fridge is to go... Keep in mind though that my self generated punch list prior to walkthrough was 2 full pages...
all communities should be so lucky having your construction in their cores
saw that first picture and thought " kodachrome " house
Amazing examples of well done urban infill. These places appear to be very well designed in both scale and siting. Amd the company made a tidy profit? Proof that good design can sell.Thanks for sharing.
How nice to see construction with character. Why is there not more of this.
Matt, those final pictures are a real treat. The colors seem strange at a distance. Not offending or pleasing, but when you get close they are BOLD and beautiful! I like a lot of what was shown in those final pictures. God, I wish those would sell for around here. What was the SqFt on that final pre-HO move-in home?
Wow! As a semi-eccentric owner, I would purchase such a home in a heartbeat. I live in an older Seattle neighborhood full of infill housing. A fair shake are quite unusual and the trend feeds on itself. People visit us from the cookie cutter burbs and their eyes pop out. The sad fact is that they will continue to purchase the same old knockoff stuff out of comfort. It takes a rather secure personality to have such a home. I love it and hope you do more for your community. What an asset.Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities- Voltaire
That last house is 2077 heated sq ft. It also has a side porch, stamped concrete patio & small front porch and a walk in crawl space with a "rat slab" covering about 1/4 of the space under there.
The colors are a bit odd to me too, but I got used to them after a while. I actually picked the exterior colors on one of the first houses, as it was a spec. Overall though, I really like the look of the neighborhood. A pic was put on the front page of the real-estate section of the Raleigh paper a few months ago.
There is another piece of property a 1/2 block down the street that is in the RFP process (Request For Proposal). It would hold about 10 houses. I think my boss-man is very interested in bidding on that one too.
Edited 2/12/2006 8:53 am ET by Matt